In the replies below would be post some quotations from different sources (mainly from Russian literature) that may have some connection with the topics brought up in the Barbara Sher's Refuse to choose. All quatations can be divided into four following issues:

alpha) The problem of refusing to choose.

beta) Thirst for knowledge and for various types of occupations as probably the universal trait inherent to all human beings.Sub-topic: "The problem of the superfluous men".

gamma) Probable biological and psychological foundations for the continuous changing of one's own sphere of interest and occupation.

delta) Overall view at the continuous education through the whole life.

"The satisfaction of one’s needs — good food, cleanliness, and freedom — now that he was deprived of all this, seemed to Pierre to constitute perfect happiness; and the choice of occupation, that is, of his way of life — now that that was so restricted — seemed to him such an easy matter that he forgot that a superfluity of the comforts of life destroys all joy in satisfying one’s needs, while great freedom in the choice of occupation — such freedom as his wealth, his education, and his social position had given him in his own life — is just what makes the choice of occupation insolubly difficult and destroys the desire and possibility of having an occupation."

4. Yoshida Kenko (1282(?) — 1350), Japanese author and Buddhist monk.

"The Miscellany of a Japanese Priest" (other title of the book is "Essays in Idleness" or "Tsurezuregusa"), translated by William N. Porter, London, 1914.

Section 188, page 143:

"There was once a man who wished to send his son into Church, so he said to him, 'You must apply yourself to study and learn the doctrine of Retribution, so that you may earn your living by preaching'. Acting on his advice, in order that he might become a preacher, he first learned to ride a horse; for he thought, 'I shall keep neither a carriage nor a carrying-chair of my own, and when a horse is sent for me to go and officiate as priest, it would be sad indeed if I fell off, because I did not know how to ride'. Next he learned a few little songs, thinking, 'After the service is over I may be pressed to take a little sake, and my hosts would think it very odd if their priest was totally without any social accomplishments'. Having thus got a smattering of these two important subjects he began to think of preparing himself still further (for his work); but while carefully considering it, not yet having had time to learn to preach, he found himself an old man!

And it is so not with this priest only, but with men of the world in general. During his youth it is ever to improve his standing, to achieve some great enterprise, to master some polite accomplishment, or to acquire learning that a man hopes in the distant future; but while his heart is set upon these things, thinking he has plenty of life left, he begins to idle and occupies himself only with what is before his eyes or is at the moment necessary; and so the days and months pass by and he grows into old age, having accomplished nothing. At length, having mastered no art and without the position he had hoped for, as he cannot recall the years he falls fast (into decay), just as a rolling wheel goes plunging down a hill-side.

So then we should think well which is the principal thing in our whole life we would aim at; and having carefully decided, we should earnestly strive to attain it, disregarding all else. When many tasks arise before us in any one day, or even hour, we should do that one which is the most profitable, even though it be so but a very little; the others we should disregard, in order that we may bend all our energies on to the chief one. For if our hearts are tempted not to throw everything else aside, the one great object will never be accomplished.

If I may offer an illustration, it is as if a man who was playing draughts, making no single move in vain, by the sacrifice of a few men captured many and so won the the game. Now it is easy to lose three men, if thereby you can take ten; but to throw away ten in order to gain eleven is far harder. Still, you should keep to the move which will give you the advantage, be it but by one. You may grudge doing it, if you thereby lose as many as ten, and when the losses are greater still it is hard indeed to exchange them. But to think in your heart that you can take (your opponent's) men without sacrificing your own is the sure way to lose yours without capturing his.

Or, suppose a man who lives in the Capital has hurried off on business to the eastern suburbs and then when he gets there he remembers an errand of still greater importance in the west suburbs; even at the very gate he should turn and go west again. But he will perhaps say, 'Having come thus far I may as well do this matter first. No special day was fixed, so I do not see why I should not go some other time to do what I have to do at the west'. But the waste of a single hour cause by this thought will there and then produce a wasted lifetime, a thing to avoid. Having once made up your mind to do a certain thing, you should not care if other objects are defeated, nor feel shame when you are ridiculed by others. For you can never attain the one Great End without abandoning all else for it.

A number of men were once gathered together and one of them said, 'Whether it is better to say "masoho no susuki" (a blade of grass) or "masuho no susuki" (an ear of grass) may be decided by an old record which the sage of Watanobe has'. The Rev. Toren, who was seated there, on hearing this said, as it was raining, 'If anybody here has a coat and umbrella, pray lend them to me; I will go and ask at the house of the sage of Watanobe the correct way to speak of grass'. The others said, 'Be not so hasty'; first let the rain stop'. But he replied, 'You could have made no more unfortunate remark than that! Does a man's life wait for the rain to clear away? If I should chance to die, or the sage should pass away, how could I ask him then?' And the story goes that he there and then ran out, went (to the sage's house) and got the information. I consider this singularly commendable.

It is written in the book called the Analects of Confucius, 'To do a thing at once is meritorious'. And just as he reasoned about the grass in dispute, so should we also reson about the supreme importance of our destiny."

"I've studied now PhilosophyAnd Jurisprudence, Medicine,—And even, alas! Theology,—From end to end, with labor keen;And here, poor fool! with all my loreI stand, no wiser than before:I'm Magister—yea, Doctor—hight,And straight or cross-wise, wrong or right,These ten years long, with many woes,I've led my scholars by the nose,—And see, that nothing can be known!That knowledge cuts me to the bone.I'm cleverer, true, than those fops of teachers,Doctors and Magisters, Scribes and Preachers;Neither scruples nor doubts come now to smite me,Nor Hell nor Devil can longer affright me.

For this, all pleasure am I foregoing;I do not pretend to aught worth knowing,I do not pretend I could be a teacherTo help or convert a fellow-creature.Then, too, I've neither lands nor gold,Nor the world's least pomp or honor hold—No dog would endure such a curst existence!Wherefore, from Magic I seek assistance,That many a secret perchance I reachThrough spirit-power and spirit-speech,And thus the bitter task foregoOf saying the things I do not know,—That I may detect the inmost forceWhich binds the world, and guides its course;Its germs, productive powers explore,And rummage in empty words no more!"

"Every man is born a Faust with a longing to embrace and experience and express everything in the world."

3. A combination of thirst for knowledge with inability to choose one's occupation probably leads to the problem known in Russian literature as "The problem of the superfluous men" (or the unwanted men, or the unnecessary men, or the misfits).

"VWe all of us of educationA something somehow have obtained,Thus, praised be God! a reputationWith us is easily attained.Oneguine was — so many deemed[Unerring critics self-esteemed],Pedantic although scholar like,In truth he had the happy trickWithout constraint in conversationOf touching lightly every theme.Silent, oracular ye'd see himAmid a serious disputation,Then suddenly discharge a jokeThe ladies' laughter to provoke.

VILatin is just now not in vogue,But if the truth I must relate,Oneguine knew enough, the rogueA mild quotation to translate,A little Juvenal to spout,With "vale" finish off a note;Two verses he could recollectOf the Aeneid, but incorrect.In history he took no pleasure,The dusty chronicles of earthFor him were but of little worth,Yet still of anecdotes a treasureWithin his memory there lay,From Romulus unto our day.

VIIFor empty sound the rascal swore heExistence would not make a curse,Knew not an iamb from a choree,Although we read him heaps of verse.Homer, Theocritus, he jeered,But Adam Smith to read appeared,And at economy was great;That is, he could elucidateHow empires store of wealth unfold,How flourish, why and wherefore lessIf the raw product they possessThe medium is required of gold.The father scarcely understandsHis son and mortgages his lands."

3. b) Ivan Turgenev (1818 — 1883), Russian writer.

"Rudin", epilogue, translated by Constance Garnett

"‘I rouse your compassion,’ Rudin murmured in a choked voice.

‘No, you are wrong. You inspire respect in me — that is what I feel. Who prevented you from spending year after year at that landowner’s, who was your friend, and who would, I am fully persuaded, have made provision for you, if you had only been willing to humour him? Why could you not live harmoniously at the gymnasium, why have you — strange man! — with whatever ideas you have entered upon an undertaking, infallibly every time ended by sacrificing your personal interests, ever refusing to take root in any but good ground, however profitable it might be?’

‘I was born a rolling stone,’ Rudin said, with a weary smile. ‘I cannot stop myself.’

‘That is true; but you cannot stop, not because there is a worm gnawing you, as you said to me at first.... It is not a worm, not the spirit of idle restlessness — it is the fire of the love of truth that burns in you, and clearly, in spite of your failings; it burns in you more hotly than in many who do not consider themselves egoists and dare to call you a humbug perhaps. I, for one, in your place should long ago have succeeded in silencing that worm in me, and should have given in to everything; and you have not even been embittered by it, Dmitri. You are ready, I am sure, to-day, to set to some new work again like a boy.’"

3. c) Maxim Gorky (1868 — 1936), Russian writer.

"Foma Gordyeff" other title: "The Man Who Was Afraid", translated by Herman Bernstein.

"“We scared an owl in the ravine,” related the boy. “That was fun! It began to fly about and struck against a tree — bang! It even began to squeak so pitifully. And we scared it again; again it rose and flew about here and there, and again it struck against something, so that its feathers were coming out. It flew about in the ravine and at last hid itself somewhere with difficulty. We did not try to look for it, we felt sorry it was all bruised. Papa, is an owl entirely blind in daytime?”

“Blind!” said Ignat; “some men will toss about in life even as this owl in daytime. Ever searching for his place, he strives and strives — only feathers fly from him, but all to no purpose. He is bruised, sickened, stripped of everything, and then with all his might he thrusts himself anywhere, just to find repose from his restlessness. Woe to such people. Woe to them, dear!”

“How painful is it to them?” said Foma in a low voice.

“Just as painful as to that owl.”

“And why is it so?”

“Why? It is hard to tell. Someone suffers because he is darkened by his pride — he desires much, but has but little strength. Another because of his foolishness. But then there are a thousand and one other reasons, which you cannot understand.”"

"— You've been attending a university for ten years? And all the time at one and the same faculty? — exclaim Heinrich Bergman.— No, it's the third or if you like the fourth faculty. The fact is that I moved to university from school of theology, first to law faculty then I began to study the political economy, and now I'm at the faculty of medicine.— And which one would be next? — Bergamn smiled.— Don't know yet.— And where will you go with all that wisdom?— Where there will be necessity for it, where I'll be able to apply it with the greatest advantage.— Advantage for oneself or for the others?— Both for the others and for myself.— You want to go to the ordinary people, as the famous motto states?— I'm already with them.— Have you accomplished any of your previous courses?— Yes, I'm the bachelor of laws.— And you also want to become a practicing physician?— Exactly."

"— You worry in vain, Vera. — Girin's voice sounds quite gentle. — Nothing would happen to Sergey, and as for me — I'm indurate. We fuss too much with the apprehensions not to overload our brain; actually it doesn't matter much, our brain could master a way more information than we usually give to it. You only have to know the right way of learning, and the brain's capacity is so huge that it is able to hold an unthinkable amount of knowledge. You got to understand, that you could and should subject your whole entity to the overloadings by terribly hard work, only taking long intervals of rest after. This is how we organized, that's how we were shaped during the continuous evolution and we cannot ignore it.

— You see, Vera, what I have told you? take that. — Ivan Rodionovich has proved that we — civilized people — are little laden and little occupied. For life to the fullest full load on all three ways is needed: for the brain, for the feelings and for the body. But what have we got? When the body is loaded, the head is empty; when the head is loaded — the body's inactive. And if someone indifferent to everything then the feelings wouldn't agitate him, stimulate, give a flight to soul and body. Just like you: you've got no feelings towards me, and so you are like you are — no fire, no bright!

— Well, I see you are very bright! — answer Vera with rage, turning her back to Sergey. — No, Ivan Rodionovich, despite all your authority I cannot agree with you. So many illness are caused by being overloaded with work!

— That depends on the type of overloading. If you level all three ways of loading, about which Sergey spoke, then you'll gain a great psychological rise from it, a rise that will make you unreceptive not only to tiredness but even to illness. Look at war — how rarely people become ill at war, and that amidst the worst possible conditions. And the overloading at war is the most terrible in all the ways. All the scientists, engineers, artists when they captivated by work, mothers when their children are sick, don't succumb to illness themselves. Eighty percent of all of our illness are mental, that is they're caused by the weakness of psychology followed by the weakness of the major "biological pivots" of our entity. Compare to animals a human being acquired mighty intelligence and fantasy. Animals automatized in a greater degree than human, therefore all psychological impacts cease and vanish very quick for animals, while for humans that impacts last long and may cause an illness. But there's also another, stronger side of that feature: human being is provided with greater psychological power, which results in a way stronger resistance to death or hard illness even to compare with the mightiest animals."

Amateur English translation from the novel "The Engineers", chapter XXIII:

"Little by little Kartashev's life settled down to the accustomed way. He was mucking about with the contractors, moving along the railroad line. While the major works were getting completed the little ones were seemed to have no end. Somewhere the tremors occurred, somewhere the trackbed got leant, somewhere the grass hadn't been mowed, shoulder lines hadn't been stretched out, watchwomen hadn't came out to passing trains, and the watchmen had always been seen only near their shacks. And here's the worker's crew, and Kartashev counts them quickly and takes a note of their quantity for that day.

All of that were important as well as any other particulars in business. It was like a clockwork device where everything should be in a strict order and conformity to result the general entirety. At the same time that was completely monotonous, tiresome by its monotonousness. Kartashev never was tired so much in the most feverish moments of construction as he was tired now when he return home in the evening after all that petty hustle of a day. The office work was boring just as well — correspondence with the headmen, petty paperwork.[...]The train started. For the last time Kartashev looked out of the window, waved his hat to knyaz and sat down in his compartment.

Some premonition dwelt within his soul that he would never return back here. And checking himself he would be glad if it would be so. Even the winter life here on his own lot with the young wife right before the eyes of analyzing knyaginya, skeptic knyaz and kind glutton deputy don't appeal to him. That wasn't the society and that wasn't the feverish active life during the construction, the life that was so much to his liking.

The life when you can forget yourself, when you can distinguish and propel yourself, measure the limit of your strength and abilities."

3. Through the Wormhole, season 3, episode 2, "Is There a Superior Race"

(From 00:15:40 to 00:16:50)

"— Genetic adaptations may even have altered the way our brains work. John and his colleagues have discovered around 100 mutations in genes controlling brain chemistry that have taken place since humanity migrated from Africa. One of them, a genetic variant called DRD4, may even have triggered that migration in the first place.

— It's linked to ADHD, because when we study patients who have ADHD, they have a greater chance of having this gene. One possible reason is that it made people more likely to move.

— The DRD4 mutation is most commonly found in populations that live outside of Africa. It appeared around 50,000 years ago. It has been called "the migration gene", because traits like rapidly shifting focus and quick movements could have been very useful when our ancestors were on the move. Even though short attention now appears less useful in our modern, sedentary society."

Probably related topics:Barbara Sher forums,forum "Refuse to Choose: The Forum for Scanners",a) topic "Recommended Reading?",created by "Ikala" in November 23, 2005;b) topic "What Three books would you recommend to other Scanners?"created by "colmbie" in May 20, 2007.

Amateur English translation from from the book "How to practice self education" (Russian: «Как заниматься самообразованием»):

"To live... it's necessary to have a specific education, but it's also necessary to have a general education, it's necessary to be able to understand everything that happen around us...[...]Specific education gives a man more or less limited amount of knowledge and skills. General education gives a man wide and integrated world view, it gives to him an understanding of the different sides of the world's life, from infinitesimally small atoms to infinitesimally vast outer space, from microscopic cells that compose organisms to folks and nations that compose the humanity. Like the world is integrated, the general education is integrated as well.[...]To understand the life it is necessitated, willingly or not, to study the whole range or circle of sciences.[...]Throwing the art out of one's life, or even to move it to the background — is the same as to commit some sort of crime against oneself.[...]The trying to become self educated that is what to practice self education means. Every person should be engaged in that work without any exception: being at school or out of school, being an old or young, being a man or woman. Every solid education can be achieved only by the self education. In one form or another all people are the self-learners.[...]... while working at one's own self education the question of inability would be abolished if one would set that work on the basis of individualization of the reading and would seek the book not only good, but the book that suits the individuality of the reader. Every person on any subject is able to find a book that gives him the knowledge exactly in the form that would be the most suitable to that reader.[...]The essence of self education isn't about where to start but about the systematical "traveling across the Universe".[...]... the essence of systematicity isn't about in what order to acquire the knowledge, it's more about of putting in order the knowledge that already have been acquired.[...]In the nature and life everything are mingled with everything, and everything affect everything.[...]It doesn't matter much where to start, more important is to set up the work the way, that it would always be interesting.[...]If the self education work is based on the books that doesn't accord with the psychological set of the reader then it would require double, triple more strength and time, which the working people usually don't have.[...]Every reader can start the self education matter accordingly to one's own way, and begin with the question that is seemed to be the most interesting and exciting.[...]The reading of both the fiction and scientific literature supplements each other. The one assumes the other. Therefore the one is inseparable from the other, consequently both of the reading should be parallel, and certainly without any disadvantage to each other..."

English translation of the passage with some changes:"... and that very freedom is what makes the choice of occupation insolubly difficult and destroys the very need and ability of having an occupation."

Alternative amateur English translation from the Russian translation:"At the end you didn't became a proficient, and hadn't built a career you dreamt about as well. You feel repentance, but it's impossible to bring the gone years back. You're heading for the destruction like a wheel that gathered speed and rolls down the slope of the hill.[...]without sacrifice of ten thousand tasks, you won't be able to complete the significant one."

Alternative amateur English translation of the passage:"Why?.. It's hard to tell... Someone because he’s darkened by his own pride — wants too much, but has little strength... another — because of his foolishness... and who knows why else?.."